Why Do We Say “Spitting Image”? (And What Does Spit Have to Do With It?)
People often say things like, “He’s the spitting image of his dad,” or “She’s the spitting image of her grandmother.”
It sounds odd when you think about it. What does spit have to do with family resemblance?
Let’s unpack how this phrase came to mean what it does today.
What It Really Means
When you say someone is the spitting image of another person, you mean they look almost exactly alike. It usually refers to a child who strongly resembles a parent or grandparent, but it can describe anyone who shares striking physical features with someone else.
Examples:
- “She’s the spitting image of her mother.”
- “They’re not related, but they could be twins—they’re spitting images of each other.”
It’s one of the strongest ways to say two people look the same.
Where It Came From
The phrase most likely began as “spit and image.” The idea was that a child wasn’t just the image of a parent but also made of the same “spit,” a metaphor for the same essence or life material.
In older English, “spit” could mean something like “the very likeness” or “offspring of.” Over time, people started saying “spittin’ image,” especially in regional dialects, and eventually that turned into “spitting image.”
So the phrase was never about actual saliva. It was about the notion that a person could look so much like someone else that it was as if they had been spat out of the same mouth—born of the same body.
How Long It’s Been Around
Expressions related to “spit and image” appear as far back as the 1600s. Over the centuries, English speakers softened and re-shaped it in casual speech until “spitting image” became the standard form.
It’s a perfect example of how language shifts naturally. Words blur together, pronunciations change, and what started as a poetic expression turns into everyday speech.
Spitting Image -In Easy Words
“Spitting image” means someone looks almost identical to another person.
The phrase started long ago as “spit and image,” meaning made from the same stuff, like a living copy of the original. It might sound strange today, but it’s really just an old-fashioned way to describe a family resemblance.
